Surging Demand For Video-Streaming Targeted By New Nokia 8 Phone

Hoping to cash in on rising consumer demand for high-quality audio and video features, HMD Global, the Finnish start-up looking to reinvigorate the Nokia phone brand, unveiled the Nokia 8 on Wednesday.

With Apple's highly anticipated 10th anniversary iPhone also expected next month and Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 set to hit the market next week, the Android device, due out in September, will potentially beat rivals on price but will still face fierce competition.

The Nokia 8 undercuts Apple with a suggested price tag of around 599 euros ($703). This is so because Apple charges hundreds of euros for memory and key features even though it typically offers a stripped down version of its latest phones for a similar price.

Simultaneous live-streaming on social media networks from both front and rear cameras on a split screen is enabled by the new top-of-the-line Nokia sports a dual-sight video feature. It has licensed lens technology from camera maker Zeiss.

HMD made a splash in May when it revived Nokia's classic 3310 feature handset in new brightly colored versions after it set up late last year and this is the most high-end phone so far from HMD.

Surround-sound audio technology made for Nokia's own virtual reality camera OZO for Hollywood professionals are also among the other features of the Nokia 8, which will also compete with Huawei's recently launched P10.

Foxconn acquired the manufacturing and distribution assets of the former Nokia phone business from Microsoft last year and a unit of the company are building the HMD products.

Nokia Oyj, once the world's dominant phonemaker, sold its handset operations to Microsoft in 2014, leaving it to focus on telecoms network equipment.

Jean-Francois Baril, a long-serving former senior vice president of Nokia, manages Smart Connect LP, a private equity fund, which is the owner of HMD. It has a licensing deal giving it sole use of the Nokia brand on all phones and tablets and it took over the Nokia feature phones business in December.

It has so far launched four smartphones and five feature phones, including the 3310.

While declining to disclose any sales figures yet, Rantala said he was happy with initial sales of the previous smartphones.

For the brand and patents, HMD will pay Nokia royalties.

without elaborating, HMD announced that its CEO Arto Nummela, a former Nokia executive, was leaving the company for personal reasons last month.